An Odessa File sequel, spies in Paris and Fleet Street in peril — the latest thriller round-up

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I do love a good Fourth Reich thriller, and there is none better than Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File. The book, which is still in print, was first published in 1972 and a gripping film soon followed. Peter Miller, a German investigative journalist, hunts down a former SS captain and discovers that a sinister Nazi organisation known as Odessa has been funnelling war criminals to South America. When the book inspired my own Fourth Reich thriller, written while I was a foreign correspondent in Budapest, the hero was also a journalist taking on a legion of evil Nazis.

So too is Peter Miller’s grandson Georg, the driving force of Revenge of Odessa (Bantam £22, GP Putnam’s Sons $32), billed as the sequel to The Odessa File. The book is co-written by Forsyth and Tony Kent. Forsyth (who died in June) wrote a detailed outline, while Kent produced the narrative. This cracking tale neatly combines their work while folding in the original storyline, with well-developed characters.

Georg is enmeshed in a violent global conspiracy as the Nazis plan their return. Luckily, he is an expert at mixed martial arts and the body count soars as he takes down bad guys. Meanwhile in Washington, as hatred and populism rise, Vanessa Price, a young staffer working for a senator, is entangled in the American end of the plan to take over the White House. Like Forsyth’s best works, Revenge of Odessa both entertains and unsettles.

Jane Thynne’s Appointment in Paris (Quercus £20) is a slower-paced, more intricate work, but no less enthralling. The second outing for Stella Fry and Harry Fox, on-off British security service operatives, is set during the UK’s darkest hour, spring 1940. European countries are falling like dominoes to the Nazis. Britain and France are bracing for a likely invasion. A body wearing the uniform of a Luftwaffe officer is found in Trent Park, a stately home converted to a prison for elite German POWs, which has been thoroughly bugged and is a top-secret intelligence-gathering station.

Real-life characters such as spymaster Maxwell Knight are woven in with engaging fictional creations. Stella too has developed a sharper, less naive edge, especially once she arrives in Paris. Thynne’s meticulous, evocative period detail — clothes, cigarettes, rations, the smell of the London Underground — is matched by her skill at portraying the web of relationships and human emotions. That mix lifts Appointment in Paris to the first division of second world war espionage novels.

In An Inside Job (HarperCollins £22/$32), Daniel Silva’s veteran Mossad spy Gabriel Allon has left the world of intelligence to track down a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. The story moves with Silva’s — and Allon’s — trademark speed and finesse. It’s entertaining, even if it lacks the hard edge of previous volumes set in the world of shadows. In today’s Israel, a former spymaster and proud patriot like Allon should have better things to do than chase works of art, no matter how illustrious. Still, Allon’s departure from espionage leaves a gap in the market — one ready to be filled by Eli Amiram.

Merle Nygate’s The Protocols of Spying (No Exit Press £10.99) is the third featuring Amiram, Mossad’s London station chief. The tale unfolds after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, and the Israelis’ stunned disbelief at the extent of the slaughter is powerfully evoked. Nygate, who is also a screenwriter, portrays Mossad — as other authors show the British and American intelligence services — as riven with factions, plots and whispering cabals.

Danger beckons when Amiram’s rival plots an assassination, supposedly linked to a group of radical Trump supporters. Meanwhile, Amiram’s ally Petra is trying to recruit the brother of a Palestinian suicide bomber. Their relationship is drawn with insight and sensitivity, bringing a strong sense of authenticity. The Israelis display courage, ingenuity and loyalty to each other. But, in a post-October 7 world, Amiram and his team are forced to make hard choices — with life-changing consequences.

Les Hinton was Rupert Murdoch’s right-hand man for more than 50 years. In Dying Days (Whitefox £9.99), his debut novel, Hinton skilfully deploys his inside knowledge of the news business to conjure up the fading world of Fleet Street. A bomb explodes at the Chatstone family’s summer party, killing politicians, power brokers and media movers and shakers. Two journalists, Dan Brasher and Jess Hunter, are on the story but are soon plunged into life-threatening danger. Hinton’s affection for the reporter’s craft shines through, and his sharply depicted newsroom makes this a must-read for anyone who has ever stepped inside a newspaper office — or wondered what goes on there.

In Fallout (Muswell Press £14.99), Peter Hain roams the world from his native South Africa to Zimbabwe, London and Beijing. Hain, a former anti-apartheid activist and Labour MP, now sitting in the House of Lords, uses his experience of global superpower intrigues to craft a smart, fast-paced story set in the 1980s. Vivid scene-setting draws the reader in, especially those parts set in newly independent Zimbabwe. A letter bomb was sent to Hain’s home during his activist days in the 1970s but thankfully did not explode. In Fallout, a fictional device wipes out a family — and Hain portrays the carnage with chilling precision.

Adam LeBor is the author of ‘The Last Days of Budapest: Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance 1940-1945’

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